Topographic Map Question

[brian_uline]

I have an Autocad file of a land survey which I believe needs to be turned into a mesh file so that I can create a tool path on it. If it's not a mesh file what kind of file would it be?
Is there anyone on the forum that conducts this kind of service?

[tmerrill]

Brian,

This thread on the Vectric forum may give you some useful information.

http://www.vectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2305&hilit=topo

If you search this forum for Topo, you will find some info.

Tim

[brian_uline]

I'm still looking for someone that could take an existing two dimensional Autocad drawing (.dwg) and convert into a 3 dimensional file. There would be two different files I would need. This file shows different elevations before and construction and after.


Thank you

[shoeshine]

Hey Brian, I have done some terrain mapping for marine/naval topography down here in San Diego. It's not particularly cheap as it takes some man-hours to do it right, but I'd be glad to take a look at your file and give you a quote.

Chris

[myxpykalix]

We took a topographical map as downloaded from a geological site of Monticello(sorry don't remember where) and I converted it to a file that could be loaded into a 3d program and cut a 3d model for the Marshall Institute. The only file i could find was a .wrl file extension and i don't recall if that was the file extension we downloaded or the resulting converted file format. But if you want to send the file to me to see if i can do anything with it.

[voll]

Could you get it converted to bitmap? I just did one of Mannhattan and used Rhino to convert it to a mesh file. Rhino Terrain Surface from Image, Using Heightfield and Bump Texture Tools and GIMP, CGSD:

http://en.wiki.mcneel.com/default.aspx/McNeel/RhinoWith2DApps.html

[shoeshine]

I use rhino, but the mesh from bitmap requires the file to be prepared with a precise level of grayscale mapping to get the right height on each area.

The better process IMHO is to take it into rhino (or other parametric modeler) set the height of each mapped area and loft the surfaces.

of course this depends on how accurate you want the finished mesh to be.

just my $.02
Chris



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[ghostcreek]

I seem to remember in the 80's there was software that allowed you to make topo scenes and export them as a 3d Object. Any one remember them? I think names like; Vista pro and Bryce?

[myxpykalix]

TrueSpace?

[khaos]

Caligari Truspace. Its free now btw:

[khaos]

I was a paid user of this great proggie.

For those who are interested. here is the link.

http://www.caligari.com/

[carlcnc]

Joe
looks to me like True Space compares to Rhino??
maybe even better?
Carl

[khaos]

I imagine its a matter of specific features and your granular needs. There are so many happy rhino users I think the product must be very good. -Joe

[myxpykalix]

I looked for this post when i REfound this link:
http://www.solidterrainmodeling.com/NGS_movie.htm
This link was originally poseted here by someone else.

We carved a model of "Monticello" home Blue Ridge mountains from a .wrl file. It was converted to a .stl file so i could cut it. I searched my back links and emails to see where i got the model from (The university of virginia website somewhere i think.)

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[myxpykalix]

sheesh.....I had already answered this long ago. Someone needs to pin a note to me and leave me out at the dog track......its getting worse